Friday, September 13, 2013

Review- PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 1: 1937-1938

Collects
Prince
Valiant
Sunday strips 1-98, originally published on February 13, 1937-
December 25, 1938.

Writer
and Artist: Hal Foster

As
part of my ongoing effort to gain a wider perspective on the history
of the medium, I decided to dive into Prince Valiant after
years of procrastination. I have to be in the right mood to enjoy
certain eras of comics, be it Golden Age material, Silver Age, Bronze
Age, Modern Age, Post-Modern Age, etc. Having said that, I enjoyed
this intermittently. Sometimes I read one or two pages, other times
40 pages in one sitting. It is superb for the time and holds up
really well today.

I'll
start with the low hanging fruit by stating that Hal Foster's artwork
is absolutely brilliant. My subpar photography shot in odd hours
doesn't do his artwork justice. The introduction states that Foster
spent 50-60 hours a week on each strip, and it shows. Every panel is
brilliantly composed, and his artwork is lush and lifelike. I
seriously doubt that we will ever see artists on par with Foster or
Alex Raymond again because youngsters these days are glued to their
phones and won't take the time necessary to cultivate their talent.
The few that will be artists will rely on Photoshop and never learn
to be good artists first in terms of panel composition, speed,
accuracy, etc. I have no problem with Photoshop as a tool in an
artist's tool belt (so to speak), but it seems to me that many modern
artists cannot draw without it.

One
of the more interesting things about this strip is that it occurs in
mostly real time. Once Prince Valiant leaves the fens and sets out
seeking adventure, two years elapses over 19 months of strips. Of
course lots of thing occur between and even off panel, with the
narrative serving to carry the weight of the story. One can only
imagine how many arcs modern comic writers could milk out of each
week's strip.

This is the strip that Jack Kirby STOLE the design for the Demon from.

The
series begins with Val's father, the King of Thule, being chased out
of his kingdom with his army in tow, forced to find a new place to
live. Thule's young son Val comes of age while living in the Fens
before setting out in search of adventure. Vikings, Marsh Lizards,
giant prehistoric turtles, giant sea-crocodiles, King Arthur,
Lancelot, Merlin, and more are among the things Prince Valiant
encounters on his journeys. I love all of the beautifully rendered
castles, forests, and knights. The various “monsters” Val
encounters give the series the occasional dash of fantasy over the
more plausible medieval aspects.

The
strip was technically called Prince Valiant In The Days Of King
Arthur by Harold R. Foster at this point in time. I'll let you
know if and when the titles gets changed in subsequent volumes. This
volume ends with Val warning King Arthur of the impending Saxon
invasion. I am going to crack open Volume 2 right now...

Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The
OCD zone- Fantagraphics always, always, always produces top shelf
high quality product. Their books may run fashionably late, but
you'll never have to buy an “upgraded” or “remastered”
version, as these books are points of pride and labors of love for
the company.

DVD-style
Extras included in this book: Two
informative introductions and one page which explains the history and
differences in the various book versions of the strip over the years.

Linework
and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. With the exception of
17 strips, all of these are scanned from pristine engraver proofs.
Out of those 17, 10 are from European proofs. A pleasant surprise
occurred to the editors when comparing these to the original US
strips: Foster's unedited artwork in one panel where a man has a
sword protruding from his chest, and his unedited dialogue in
another.

The
first ten strips were extremely scarce, so the restoration there is a
bit more crude than what you find from April 24, 1937 on. It's
perfectly serviceable but is not as crisp as the bulk of the
material.

While
Prince Valiant has been collected several times over the years
(as far back as the 1950s), this is the first time that the original
color palette has been maintained throughout the entire process. This
is that definitive “Blu-Ray edition” that you have always wanted
to see.

Paper
rating: 5 out of 5. Beautiful thick uncoated stock paper with
zero sheen. It also smells terrific, as do as all Chinese made books.

Binding
rating: 5 out of 5. High quality sewn binding with room for the
casing to flex, allowing this beast of a book to lay perfectly flat
from the first page to the last.

Hardback
cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. Fantagraphics does not use
dustjackets on their books. The image is printed on the hardback
itself, in this case one coated with a dull matte finish. This books
will look fine over the long term but the coating is not rigorous
enough for long term store shelf life.